Hey Gang,

I’m still here.  If you follow the blog posts at all, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that I’ve not blogged or written much in the past couple of months.  “Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”  (name that movie quote)

Fall is always the busiest season for me.  We add soccer to our schedules – so we have games every weekend.  (Thus, the absence of the popular “Small Town Stories” series I was doing on Saturday mornings).  I’m gearing up for the busy retail season with HPP Enterprises, my e-commerce company, and church is bustling along as always.

In less than two weeks I will be hosting my first ever event here, “Refuge“.  I am so excited to be hosting this event and several of you faithful blog readers are attending – can’t wait to hang out with you for 3 days!  It will be an incredibly powerful time and it’s not too late to join us – just register at RefugeSSI.Com.

With everything that’s been going on, the blog is usually one of the first things to take the back burner.  The early morning time that I’d normally be writing my blogs is now used to train new workers and product source for e-biz.  The late evenings, selfishly, but rightfully, are used to just slow down, relax, and watch some of our favorite TV premiers and seasons with my wife.  A Summer transition in our worship ministry at SSCC added a considerable layer of responsibility, meetings, followups, and work to my plate at church.  So … although the blog topics are present in my mind (and my potential blog articles list in Evernote is growing quite large)!, I’m just not able to take the time.

This is just an 8:30 AM check-in to say I’m alive and well.  Maybe we’ll bring back this space but for now, you get what you get, when you get it.   Yeah, I know – that breaks all the rules about blogging … but this blog ain’t my God, and although I’d love to have a huge readership, this space is more for my own downloads, so the timing is all mine.

Hope you understand.

Are you still with me?

Multi-Generational Worship.

This is a buzz word these days.  We keep discussing this at our church, and how we desire to create it.  I have news for you, it’s not that easy.

We’re in the midst of ongoing, challenging,  yet fulfilling discussions about our worship culture, and we always come back to these questions:

What is “multi-generational worship”?
How do we define a “culture of worship”?

So I’m reaching out to you, my online friends.  I’d love to hear from worship leaders, pastors, and non-church leaders.  Congregants.  Moms.  Dads.  Kids.  Youth.

At the bottom of this post is a “Add a Comment” box.  How would you define “multi-generational worship” or “blended worship”.  I’d suggest checking the box that enables you to get an email reply if someone else comments on your post so that the dialog can keep going for days.

Go for it.  (Facebook friends – I’d be honored and grateful if you’d leave your comments on the blog, and not on Facebook (or both) …. by leaving them on the blog, we keep all of the conversation in one place.)

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Hey Gang,

For all of you worship leaders … when was the last time you got off the platform?  For all you church goers – when was the last time you saw your leader off-stage?

I’ve been off the platform for the past two Sundays at SSCC.

Two Sundays ago my wife and I took the weekend (sans kids, thanks to my mom!) and went away to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary together.  I tuned into our worship services via our SSCCLive.Com internet broadcast and enjoyed seeing my friend Russ Hutto lead the worship.  You could say I was truly “off” that Sunday, except for about 15 minutes of emailing and texting when our scheduled drummer for the youth service was a no-show.

Yesterday I was back at work, but off the stage.  My friend Shannon Lewis led worship for us. (read his recap of the service and the setlist on his blog) It’s so funny to hear how many people come up and say “you’re off today”?

I believe that as leaders, we have a responsibility to raise up and empower other leaders.  As we work to duplicate ourselves and multiply our efforts we have to step aside and let other leaders flourish.

This Sunday, Shannon’s leading in our main sanctuary gave me the ability to do several things:

1.  give him a chance to lead and bless our congregation with his gifts (we all lead differently, and the diversity is good)
2.  gave me a chance to mingle more with our people as they came in and connect with them relationally
3.  gave me a chance to worship in the congregation and get the much-needed perspective of what that’s like
4.  gave me the chance to observe the culture of worship in each of our venues (Tiny Town, Kid Jam Clubhouse, Youth Rooftop)

Being off the stage brings so much perspective.  From the congregation I can see how the audio mix is sounding (great job, Ben!), I can observe how people are engaging, how our lighting feels when it’s adjusted in the room, what other distractions may be occurring that we miss from the stage, etc.

Some of you are in a church where you have nobody else to lead worship.  It’s you, or it’s a CD.  I’d like to encourage you to really pray and ask God to bring in more leaders.  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see who on your team may be that next leader.  Begin to mentor them.  Take the “you lead with me, I lead with you, you lead” approach.

My goal is to be completely off-platform 2-3 times per quarter.  I typically adhere to that unless I have a very specific reason for not doing it.

How about you?

(this recap is a part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com each week)

Hey Gang,

As you may have heard, I’m hosting a small 3-day (really, more like 2-1/2 days!) retreat here on St. Simons Island, GA in October.  It’s called “Refuge” and it’s more of a sabbatical time of spiritual renewal than it is an equipping-resource event.

One question that I get asked over and over …

“Fred, with all the conferences out there equipping people, why should someone come to Refuge … I mean, can’t they just have their own private sabbatical any time?”

One of my favorite bloggers and leaders, Michael Hyatt, has talked about Sabbatical several times on his blog – you can checkout his posts below:

“Should You Dare to Think About a Sabbatical“?

“Six Ways to Take a Micro-Sabbatical”

Let me ask you some questions:

1.  If left to yourself, without structured help, will you really take the time to stop your merry-go-round and get off for a few days to focus?
2.  Is there value in community, and gathering with other like-minded creatives that will inspire you?
3.  Is there worth in being equipped spiritually, physically, and emotionally?
4.  Can a person who has been recharged in their inner-man return to their routine with a renewed passion, more focus, clarity, and vision?

To be totally honest, those are rhetorical questions.  Of course, the answer to all of those questions is a resounding YES!

So what we have brewing for this “Refuge” event is a real intimate time where you can:

* draw near to God, in personal solitude AND in corporate worship and teaching
* be challenged and inspired in fresh ways to make your daily walk with Christ authentic, real, and personal again
* have a safe place with licensed counselors to vent, confess, and pray
* relax and have a LOT of fun, fellowship, and let the tension and stress of leadership melt away

Someone recently told me how badly they wanted to come, but things would just be too busy.  I almost started laughing – I wanted to say EXACTLY — that’s why you NEED THIS SO BADLY.

A few things you can count on:
1.  Life will keep you busy.
2.  The disciplines of rest, prayer, worship – essentially, Sabbatical, will yield HUGE DIVIDENDS in your personal growth, leadership, and creativity.

That being said, if you’ve been on the fence about this event, I hope you’ll take that step of faith and join us.
Details at:  www.refugessi.com

Hey Everybody,

Today was a sweet service at SSCC.  It was what we call a “stand-alone” Sunday, meaning the sermon was not part of an ongoing series.  Our Family Pastor, Mark Fritchman, spoke on parenting, and did a great job.  I’ve been doing a lot of new music and had lots of energy put into our previous Night of Worship.  Because of that, and the reality that our Tech Director was away (let’s try to keep rehearsal simple) and my wife was away (I’m Mr. Mom all weekend!), I opted for a Sunday where our songs were familiar to the congregation and the band.

Our walk-in song was “Praise the Name of Jesus” by Ken Mullis.  This is a super-fun song to play.  It’s a blues swing with great lyrics.  From our quick greeting we dove directly into “For All You’ve Done” by Hillsong, which is an ongoing favorite at our church for the past four years.

After announcements we did a 2-song set in G, starting with Don Poythress’ version of “The Doxology” followed by “Agnus Dei”.  I really enjoyed this segment and once again, we slowed things down a bit and just lingered at the end of Doxology for a time of reflection and prayer.

Our closing song was “Revelation Song”.  Honestly, I was feeling awkward about it – we usually try to pull our sermon and closing together and that wasn’t the case this week.  I wasn’t really interested in going to the handful of convicting-parent songs, so when he finished the sermon, the changing of gears to “ok, let’s sing one last song and worship” felt strange.

The strangeness faded after about 10 seconds.  The people began to sing and the room was filled with worship.  I’m reminded that we don’t have to meticulously plan every song and lyric to support the sermon.  Worship doesn’t have to be a response to a sermon – it’s just a response to God, period.

And that’s my recap for this Sunday, July 31.  As always, I’m posting this as a part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com each week.  To view our planning document, visit PlanningCenterOnline.

Criticism and Judgment.  If you can’t take it, you’d best not get involved in worship ministry.

Let’s face it.  The musical aspect of a corporate worship service is filled with the potential for criticism:

* song selection
* style
* instrumentation and arrangement
* volume
* technology used to support (sound, lighting, visuals)

Rarely does a week go by where I’m not blessed by people who share with me how have been inspired by music and ministry.  At the same time, I’m used to getting complaints, suggestions, and criticisms.

Today was a great example.  When I walked into my office I had two pieces of mail (yeah, the real stuff in an envelope with a stamp on it) on my desk.

One envelope included a thank-you card and a sweet note about this person’s experience being so wonderful in our worship service this Sunday.

The other envelope contained a letter from a visitor filled with harsh criticism … but worse, judgment.  It was filled with harsh lines about how “I” attempted to manipulate God, etc.  If the Bible is true (and we know it is), this person has a heap of judgment “pressed down, shaken together, and running over” coming their way, as a result of what they sowed into my heart today.

So how do we handle it?

Criticism: ask yourselves a few questions:

1.  Is there anything constructive that I can learn from the information?
2.  Does this person seem to have a loving, sincere approach?
3.  Is there a relationship present, and does this person have a good understanding of our overall mission, as opposed to a 1-visit snapshot?

Judgment: there is really no place for it.  It stings.  It hurts.  To have someone accuse you of things that are very far away from your heart or motives … things that are actually offensive to your heart and motives … it just is hard to swallow.

I like to spread those out before the Lord and simply ask Him to help me know my heart, my motives, and most importantly, to know HIS heart.  I pray for the person who is clearly reacting out of some other wound or frustration, and pray that I will not allow it to take root in my soul.

There will always be critics.  Some more loving and gentle than others.  Some with information we need to hear and process.  Some who abuse any right they have to comment.

Taking offense is not an option.  It will only drag you down.

How do you process complaints or criticism?  Do you keep them to yourself or share them with your team?

Because we have multiple services at SSCC, margin isn’t something we seem to find.  Despite our many efforts, we typically end up with a worship service that is around 1:15 and is FILLED with outflow.

Songs.
Announcements.
Sermons.

That’s not such a bad thing.  After all, we gather corporately so that we can express ourselves in worship to God (typically, through songs) and be taught and built up (sermons).  Since the body is gathered, it makes sense to do some communication to inform people about what’s going on.  (announcements).

So, let’s think about that.  If you have 5 songs averaging 5 minutes each, that’s 25 minutes.  If you have a sermon averaging 35-40 minutes, now we’re up to 60-65 minutes.  Add in announcements and any kind of transition, you’ve hit your time expiration and there’s no margin.

Now before the zealots start flaming us about the clock, you have to understand — if we don’t try to wrap things up in 1:15 max, we have a logistical nightmare in the parking lots.

This Sunday was one of those rare Sundays where we had “margin”.  Our Discipleship Pastor was preaching and he came to be Sunday AM and said that his sermon would be shorter than he anticipated.  SHORTER?  Are you KIDDING ME?  He even suggested that we have some last-minute planning to allow for more worship at the end of the message.  I was totally cool with that.

The beautiful thing about margin?  You aren’t forced to use it (though we usually do) and you can choose where it comes from.

When I have margin and I know I’m entrusted to steward it, I become a different leader.
It’s not about getting through the setlist on time.
It’s not about avoiding the discussion about going over time.

This past Sunday, as I led through the song we’d selected to happen between the Announcement Break and the Sermon, that margin became invaluable.

We’d just concluded singing a beautiful worship ballad, “Waiting Here For You” from the Passion 2011 album.  Even though it was a brand new tune for our church, I could discern that the people had genuinely engaged in worship.  As the song came to a close, I couldn’t bring myself to just say a snap prayer and move on.  I knew the Holy Spirit was telling me to “wait”.

So I waited.
I prayed.
I played a light, consistent progression slowly.

I took my time.  I asked the congregation to wait.  To pray.  We seldom stop and make time for this.  It wasn’t just a dude on the stage leading a prayer for a quick Amen.  We were waiting in God’s Presence, praying, seeking, crying out.

Knowing we weren’t pressed for time, I took this a step further.  I asked the tech guys (who responded immediately and graciously) to bring up our house lights slowly.

“Who is struggling?  Who just needs a touch?  Who needs prayer?  Slip up your hand – and if you’re around someone raising their hand, just touch them, maybe on the shoulder, to let them know you are there, that you support them, and that you care.  Pray for them.  You don’t even have to ask what it’s about – just lift them up.”

It was beautiful.  I believe we could have stayed in that pause for a long time.  But it was like we stopped the motions for a while and God smiled and said “glad to see you”.

So I took the margin earlier than later.  We concluded our entire service without my adding another song.

In many cases, I’d rather add that waiting time, for prayer, for seeking … instead of yet, another song.

This makes me desperate for margin.  In my life.  In our worship services.  You don’t get it unless you work for it.

How much margin is in your worship services?  Do you feel pressed for time to squeeze everything in, or do you have ample time to wait and see what God may be doing in that moment?

Yesterday was perhaps one of the sweetest days of worship that I can recall at SSCC.  I think there are lots of reasons.  We’d just had a “Night of Worship” event the Friday night before.  We had more margin (see tomorrow’s post!) in our service plan, and the teaching focused on worship.

We opened slowly, with an older classic, “Open the Eyes of My Heart”.  I find it nice to open slowly sometimes.  Paul Baloche calls this an “on-ramp”.  It gives people a transition into worship and I could see people making that transition clearly.

To open up the top of the hour, we introduced a new, upbeat song called “We Are The Free” from Matt Redman’s newest album, “10,000 Reasons”.  I’d originally decided that although I love this song, it would never find a home in our typical sunday service.  I felt it was just too edgy and youth-driven.  It didn’t seem to fit our culture.  I had so many people from the band and congregation who’d already heard the song and really encouraged me to go for it.  To my surprise, the song was really well-received.

From that song we segued directly into super-familiar “Glory to God Forever”.

After a time of announcements, we introduced the brand new worship ballad from the Passion 2011 album, “Waiting Here For You”.  Heather, one of our team members, led this and did a beautiful job.

At the conclusion of this song, I felt a strong sense that we should just wait a moment and not rush into the sermon.  We lingered there, and before I knew it, we were praying and crying out to God.  The congregation was praying, people were praying for others who needed prayer … it was a beautiful thing that I’ll describe more fully in tomorrow’s blog post.

Our Discipleship Pastor did an incredible job teaching on worship, our response to God, and living the life of worship.

We concluded with a traditional version of “The Old Rugged Cross” with nothing but vocals and piano.  IT WAS GORGEOUS.  I loved hearing the people of God sing this classic hymn.  I also sang the deep bass line, which was stylistically different for us, but added to the traditional feel.  It was a special moment.

Transitioning out of the hymn we sang “The Song of Moses”, a newer song from some guys up in Atlanta.  It was massive and I can only say that I felt that our congregation literally walked together through this journey of worship.  It was one of my favorite Sundays!

As always, I’m sharing our worship service recap as a part of the “Sunday Setlists” event, hosted weekly at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

I announced a while back that I’d finally taken the plunge to purchase an iPad2.  I confessed that it was much more of a luxury item than a necessity.  Now that I’ve used it for a couple of months, I’ve realized just how much I’ve missed by not having it sooner.

Here are 6 ways that I’ve used the iPad2 in the context of corporate worship and my job as a worship pastor.

1.  Planning Meetings:  this is a bit of a luxury, but I no longer have to haul my big MacBook Pro up the stairs and take up a lot of table space at our weekly planning meetings.  I show up with my iPad2 in hand, with quick easy access to my tunes and PlanningCenterOnline.

2.  Digital Music Stand:  there are numerous apps out there that let you store a library of .pdf files.  I haven’t even gotten that far yet, but I export our setlist from PlanningCenter as a .pdf into my DropBox account, and then open it on the iPad for a quick, easy digital music stand.  No more stacks of paper to shuffle through.  (DropBox is FREE, and if you haven’t created a free account there, you’re missing out.  Use my affiliate link so I can get more free space, please!)

3.  Remote Control:  with the “Remote” app, I can easily control my iTunes playlist from my iPad.  This has come in extremely handy when I’m at the piano or keyboard rehearsing a tune or charting out a song.  Where before I’d have to reach way over to my desk and press play w/ the mouse, scoot back to my keyboard, scoot back to stop and rewind, etc., I can do all of this with the iPad sitting on my keyboard.  From one seat at the piano or keyboard, I can load, play, rewind, repeat, scrub – making charting arrangements and learning new songs a lot easier.

4.  Yamaha M7CL StageMix App:  with this incredible, FREE app from Yamaha, I can actually connect via WiFi to our Yahama M7CL sound board and easily adjust the sound.  Granted, we’ve got an incredible tech team on hand mixing the sound, but being able to tweak my personal in-ear monitor mix from the iPad is genius.

5.  ProRemote:  ProRemote is a high-end, paid app (it’s got a hefty price tag of $99) that is a full-featured remote mixing/editing surface for all of the popular recording and looping packages, including Logic Studio, ProTools, Ableton Live, Reason, Garageband, and more.  This app is far more powerful than a simple on/off remote.  It gives you full access to almost every feature in the software itself.   Imagine being able to leave the studio console, walk into a vocal booth, record-enable a track, hit play, punch in and out recording, scrub back and listen, set location markers, and more …. by yourself, wirelessly, without an engineer sitting at the console.  All of this is possible through ProRemote.

In our studio, I’ve toggled back and forth between the iTunes Remote and ProRemote to create loops,click tracks, and full arrangements of songs.  On stage, I used ProRemote to not only control the Start/Stop of our click tracks in Ableton Live, but I also setup loop points and markers where I could easily loop or go back to a rehearsal marker with a push of a “pad” on the screen of my iPad.

6.  My Music – everywhere:  With the landing of Spotify here in the US, I can have my music, playlists, and even the playlists and music of friends available to me on my iPad instantly.  I’m not worried about syncing libraries, managing iTunes accounts, or even better – taking up precious storage space on my device.

Free Spotify accounts are by invitation only through Klout … but I have good news.  I’ve got a special link to get you in.  (Get a Klout and Spotify Account Here!)

This is a short-list of the way I’ve benefited from using the iPad2. If you’ve considered making a purchase, I hope this can help justify it.  If you already have an iPad, how do you use it in the context of your job?

Let the fun begin!

Well, nothing is perfect.  But the way the songs and lyrics fit the 3rd week’s message in our “Uncaged” series at SSCC this week was close to it.

I’d planned our closing song in cooperation with Jon Blankenship, who would be preaching this week … but had no idea that the rest of his sermon would literally be full of the actual lyrics and expressions in all of our songs.

I love it when it when that happens!

Overall, it was a more “contemporary” Sunday than normal, with bigger, edgier, louder music.  I expected that I may get a little more pushback than I did, but only one complaint thus far, and it was from a visitor who said they don’t want anything except traditional music.

Walk In:
My Savior Lives

Opening Song:
I Am Free

Worship Set:
Your Name
You Save (original)

Closer:
Christ Is Risen

It was awesome seeing a number of people confessing Jesus as their Lord and Savior in both services!

Sharing this as part of the “Sunday Setlists” event held weekly at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

Better late than never, right?

Here’s a recap of our Setlist from SSCC.  As always, I’m posting this as part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

View our Service in PlanningCenterOnline.

This was one of those Sundays when before you ever start, you realize that you’re probably trying to cram way too much into one service.  Sometimes it just happens that way.  We want to worship through music and song.  We want to be challenged and equipped through the preaching of the Word.  We want to have community and communicate things to our congregants.  We want to celebrate missions and pray for outgoing teams.

The tension comes when all of this needs to happen on one Sunday, for whatever reason.  We are held to a fairly tight schedule due to multiple services and the logistics of clearing a building and parking lot.

This Sunday was one of those Sundays.  We had a longer-than-normal sermon (which we already knew, and was great).  We had new members to introduce, several important announcements, and a missions team to send.  Plus, we’d planned an inspiring time of ministry for response after the sermon.

Well, our service DID go a bit long – but it was worth it.  At the end of the day, I’m sure we were the ones paying attention to the clock a lot more than those who came to worship.  It’s a tension that has to be managed, and I think we did a good job with it this week.

On to the music:

Walk In:  “Everlasting God” (a last minute change because the original song we’d chosen didn’t work out)
Opening Set:
“Alive Again” (Maher, one of our favorites)
“Song of Moses” (recently recorded on new Aaron Keyes album, LOVE this song)

Ministry time at end:
“Rescue” (Jared Anderson)
“Jesus Paid it All” (Northpoint)

Without going into a lot of detail about the sermon and how it impacted people, we were overwhelmed at the conclusion of the service with people coming forward for ministry and to “put their sin” in this cage we’d built.  It was incredibly inspiring and I felt like people were really getting free.  Praise God!

And that’s a wrap for this week!

Question:  how do you manage the tension of time management in your services?

This 4th of July holiday threw my blogging schedule off a bit.  Excuses, Excuses!

So I’d hoped to do a thorough recap on my use of the iPad2 in our worship service but for today, the setlist recap will have to suffice.  The blog on the iPad is going to be a lot more involved.

You can view a production sheet for our July 3rd service via PlanningCenter.

Sunday, July 3rd - St. Simons Community Church

Russ Hutto opened us with the debut of “Here for You” off the new Passion 2011 album.  It was a great song and one I look forward to integrating into our services.

From there, we went into “All my Fountains” (also from Passion 2011) with the arrangement I use for hammer dulcimer.  It’s a favorite of ours, and I love playing it.

After announcements, I acknowledged the significance of the upcoming July 4 holiday and we sang “God Bless America” as a prayer, asking God for his blessing on our country.  That flowed seamlessly into “I Stand Amazed” (How Marvelous) hymn, followed by “Mighty To Save” that was more in the Laura Story-type arrangement than the Hillsong one.

We had an intense sermon about being “caged” — I’d been waiting literally for 2 years to find the right service to do the song “Pieces” by the band, Red.  This was the service.  I spent the week scoring out cello and violin parts, sequencing, tracking, and we did this song for a very powerful time to close the service.

Tons of great feedback about this closer.  I will be posting the sequences and loops soon.

As always, this recap is part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com each week!

Image: bcfamyours.com (Kyle Baker)

So I mentioned in this week’s worship service recap post that we opened our services at SSCC with a secular song, “When A Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge.

We don’t typically cover a lot of secular songs but from time to time we’ll choose one if it fits.  I’m all for integrating these into our corporate time if the song enhances the overall theme for the day.  In this case, the song was a perfect match to our sermon title.  I felt that overall, it was lyrically safe. Because it’s such an old standard, I felt it would be a good ice breaker.

In searching for a good image to use for this blog post I came across this image (and blog) from Kyle Baker in TN.  His post about “Secular vs Sacred” can be read here.

So what’s your take on this issue?  Should secular songs be used in church services? Leave your comments below and join the discussion.

I’m living with this song this week. It will potentially be our closer this coming Sunday, July 3rd at SSCC. Our hope is to create a tension where we can ask ourselves the hard questions:

Am I trying to do this alone?
Have I tried to be King?
Where and how am I trapped?

We’re pulling together a few string players to make this a beautiful, stirring moment.

(Today’s post is part of the “Sunday Setlists” event sponsored by TheWorshipCommunity.Com.  Checkout worship service recaps from other worship leaders!)

Hey Gang!

I’m crafting this recap at an early 5:19 AM on Monday.  I had no intentions of being up at 4:00 AM but that’s how it happened today.

Yesterday was a great service at SSCC.  The flow of our service was a bit different than normal, as we didn’t have our corporate worship through singing and music until the end of the service.

It was the final week of our “The Man Series”.  This week’s sermon title was “When A Man Loves a Woman”.

What better song to kickoff the morning than Percy’s “When A Man Loves A Woman”!  Since this is a secular song I thought it would be wise to break the ice.  This was our “walk-in” song so I just greeted everyone, explained that we were on our last week, the title, and pitched the song.  It was fun watching people laugh and smile as they casually enjoyed this all-familiar tune.  After we finished the song in the 9:00 AM service people really clapped and showed how much they enjoyed it.

We had one of our supported missionaries to East Asia with us so the first part of our service was dedicated to him.  After a well-produced video he shared about their work.

Just as David was about to get started with the sermon we interrupted him with our final spoof of the Bud Lite commercials, “Real Men of Genius”.  This week was “Mr. Golf Tournament Quiet Sign Holder Upper”.  The real humor in it was having PGA Pro Jonathan Byrd walk out on stage holding a big “Quiet” sign, accompanied my Mark Love, brother (and former caddy) of PGA Pro, Davis Love III.

Our time of corporate singing came during holy communion at the conclusion of the service.  Our communion set included:

“Remembrance” (Matt Maher/Matt Redman)
“In Christ Alone”
“He Ransomed Me” (original song I wrote last month, featured here)

“The Man Series” was a hit in our church.  I’ll miss our cool man cave setup on the stage for sure, but maybe I’ll get our Yamaha grand piano back out there.  I miss playing her!

View a copy of our service details and flow @ PlanningCenterOnline.Com.

How did it go with your services this weekend?

Worship Recap from St. Simons Community Church
Sunday, June 19th 2011
Posted as part of the weekly “Sunday Setlists” event at TheWorshipCommunity.Com – see what other churches are doing!

Yesterday was one of those Sundays I’d characterize as a real “win” for our church in regards to our culture of leadership.  That’s because both myself, as the Worship Pastor, and my buddy and co-worker, Travis Paulding (our Full-Time Tech Director) observed while those on our teams led.

We had the privilege of hosting Aaron Keyes as a guest worship leader for a few songs yesterday.  He’s in town leading worship for a summer camp and has formed some great relationships with some folks in our church over the past years.  It was a perfect fit for him to return back to SSCC and bless us with his ministry.  Aaron and my friend Shannon Lewis are friends and I decided to let Shannon run with this one.

So, while I sat back and watched Shannon lead an incredible worship service,  co-leading with Aaron, I noticed Travis leaning back against the sound booth while his faithful volunteers made all the audio/video stuff happen.  At one point I leaned over to the volunteer running sound, Jerry, and said “man, that’s a great mix”.  I have a critical ear when it comes to mixing – and he did an incredible job.

Afterwards, my brother-in-law said to me, “I think that was the best sermon I’ve ever heard David preach”.   He was so inspired by the teaching on how a Real Man is a Life-Giver.

You can view a copy of our service flow. (thanks to PlanningCenterOnline)

Walk-In Song:  “Glory to God Forever” (Fee/Beeching)

At the top of the hour, we ran the “Dad Life” video for Father’s Day by Church on the Move.  It was hilarious! (see below)

Next, Shannon led “Our God”, followed by an introduction to Aaron Keyes.

Aaron led us with:
“Not Guilty Anymore” (my personal favorite”
“Song of Moses” (on brand new CD coming out tomorrow!)

After the sermon (you can watch it within 24 hours at sscclive.com), we closed with “Father Will You Come”.

We’re in this series called “Survey Says” where we’re asking and answering some interesting questions.  The last post was about the top blogs you read. (jump over and answer it if you haven’t already!)

Today’s question is a lot riskier.  Some of you may need to answer anonymously.  Just put “nobody@nobody.com” as your email address if you feel that’s necessary.

Whether you are on staff or not … if you could change ONE THING about the way your church operates (be it in service, leadership, doctrine, philosophy of ministry, etc) … what would it be?

This isn’t meant to be a church-bashing party … but all of us have probably thought to ourselves “if I were the one who made the final decision, I would have us do this ____________________”.

And thinking those thoughts is not necessarily bad, friends – especially if they are done with respect.  Sometimes, that’s where a vision is born.

So … go for it.  And like I said earlier, if you feel the need to comment anonymously, that’s quite OK.

I’m thrilled to officially announce a dream that has been years in the making.  That dream is called:

Refuge.

On October 23 – 26, right here on beautiful St. Simons Island, GA, we will have a gathering of worshipers, leaders, and friends who share a deep need — the burning desire to enter into a 3-day sabbatical retreat so that we can draw closer to God, hear His voice, and find rest, renewal, and restoration.  One glance at the schedule for Refuge and you’ll quickly see this event is unlike most conferences or seminars.

Details will be coming throughout the Summer.  Space is limited, so take advantage of the early registration and come join us.

Please visit the Official Site and subscribe to the blog updates at:
www.RefugeSSI.Com

I’d also be grateful if you’d consider following our updates on Twitter:
Twitter ID:  @refugessi
Twitter Event Hashtag:  #refugessi

Lastly, you can “like” us on Facebook.

Right now – I’m excited, nervous, and overwhelmed – all at the same time.  I can’t wait until October.  Hope to see you there!

This past Sunday I had the privilege of co-teaching with our pastor on “Worship 101″.  In our opening set, David (our pastor) gave some reasons WHY we would worship at all.  In the second set, I joined him as we discussed various postures and expressive responses of worship.

If you fast-forward the video to around 35:00 minutes you’ll get to the tag-team portion.

One of the best things that has happened in my life through blogging and social media is the connections and relationships that I’ve formed.  I think about friends who visit the blog here, who chat back and forth via IM, Twitter, and Facebook … many of whom I’ve now met in person … and what a beautiful way the internet has connected us …

Lately, I’ve seen a trend … a trend of bags packing, positions closing, doors swinging open and shut … change is in the air.

There are times when it seems like God takes a deep breath and doesn’t just move a chess piece; rather, He shakes up the entire board.  I am seeing that happen with several worship leaders and ministers across the nation.  Just last week I spoke with at least 3 different friends who are walking through a season of change and transition.

Transition and change is never easy.  It takes a complete trust and reliance on God.  I feel qualified to say that, as I’ve been there myself.  I’ve taken that deep breath and walked away – from church positions, from status, from financial provision, from platform and influence … and God has been there, and His will always came shining through.

If we’ve spoken (or emailed) – trust that I’m praying for you.  If you are in this place and haven’t reached out, let me know.  I’d love to add you to my list of soldiers in transition that need a covering for grace, peace, and provision.

Most of all – keep the faith.  Keep your head high.  Pray.  Worship like never before.  Glorify God in all you do and say.  Trust Him and know that His plan for you is a great plan.  Easier said than done when you are in the furnace … but this too shall pass.

Are you anchored and in a solid place?  Why not stop and pray for those who aren’t.  Even if you don’t know of anyone by name (but that would surprise me) … say a prayer for all of those in ministry leadership who are in that awkward place of transition and change.

For the Kingdom,

Fred

Happy Mother’s Day!  Here’s a quick recap of our worship music set from St. Simons Community Church.  It’s been a great Sunday with a great band.  If I had to think of a couple of words to describe this morning’s set, I’d say “simple” and “relaxed”.  We’re singing some older songs and using some lighter arrangements that work well for a smaller band.

Walk-In:
“Your Love is Amazing” (Hallelujah, Your Love Sets Me Free)
*based on the last Brian Doerksen recording, love this newer arrangement of a great song

“Everlasting God” (Brenton Brown)
*still one of my all-time favorites to lead corporately.  We’re singing back God’s Word with this tune.

Baby Dedication:
What a great day to honor Mothers in having Baby Dedications.  After dedicating the babies we have a time where various pastoral staff and Elders pray for the parents and kids – during this time, we typically do a softer arrangement of a song focused around consecration and dedication.  For this moment, we did the Passion version of “Take My Life”.

Special:
“Word of God Speak” (Mercy Me) – a light arrangement of this classic ballad to setup our sermon, called “Word of God Speak”.

Closer:
“I Will Never Be” (Hillsong)
*an older Hillsong ballad that’s been a classic in our church for years.  “Never be the same again” is a tagline used in our branding and church logos, and it’s a prayer of our church, that people will encounter God and “never be the same again”.

I’m sharing our setlist with other worshipers who participate in the “Sunday Setlists” event, hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com.  Check it out!

This picture has to be one of my favorites taken at our church, St. Simons Community Church.  This is a shot of our Groups/Discipleship Pastor, Jon Blankenship, in the baptismal, about to celebrate baptisms.  What an incredible way to have Easter Sunday – with baptisms.  We had powerful baptisms in every service accompanied by incredible video testimonies.  Huge kudos to my friend, Chris Moncus, for the as-usual-awesome photography.

Our songs:
“Glorious” (Baloche/Brown)
“Alive Again” (Matt Maher)
“For All You’ve Done” (Hillsong)
“Christ the Lord is Risen Today” (Trad. Hymn featuring Russ Hutto on trumpet)
“Jesus Saves” (Travis Cottrell)
“Christ is Risen” (Matt Maher)

Both services were powerful, with strong worship, baptisms, testimonies, and the Spoken Word.  We saw responses for salvation in both services as well.

With the exception of the air conditioning dying in our 9:00 service (which was completely packed), it couldn’t have gone much better.

Interested in what other churches did?  Checkout “Sunday Setlists” over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

You know it’s a fun Sunday when you get to play the theme music from “Angry Birds”, right?  Read on!

This is a recap of our worship service at SSCC for Sunday, April 17, 2011.  I’m posting this recap as a part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

Yesterday we had our “Church in the Park” service in Neptune Park by the ocean on St. Simons Island, GA.  We could not have asked for a more beautiful day.  There is something incredible about worshiping outdoors with a backdrop of the ocean, sailboats, majestic live oaks, and easily somewhere between 1500-2000 people on blankets, in chairs, and even in trees!

Our Setlist:

1.  G-Blues (the band just played some jazz for about 5 minutes to get things started)
2.  “Our God”
3.  “Hosanna” (Baloche/Brown)
4.  “No Other Name” (Todd Fields)

Announcements/Welcome
It was during this time that we unveiled our new SSCC T-Shirts.  We had one of those huge balloon launchers and decided to launch some rolled up T-Shirts into the crowd as giveaways.  What better music to play than the “Angry Birds” theme music.  I switched to marimba on my Yamaha S80 and had the band vamp on Em.  It was hilarious and I was pleased that so many people instantly recognized the tune.

5.  “Alive Again” (Matt Maher)
6.  “Mighty To Save”
7.  “You Are Everything” (Matthew West – special)

Closer:
8.  “How Great is Our God”

We wanted to do songs that were easy to sing and very familiar.  We did have the lyrics printed in our single-sheet bulletin but hoped most people would connect to these tunes.  Our tech team did an awesome job working with Stage Front, the company from Savannah that was hired to provide our outdoor sound system.

The best part of “Church in the Park”?  All the picnic foods, ball-throwing, and fellowship afterwards!

SAVE THE DATE:

October 23 – October 26, 2011

On these dates, a dream will become a reality. Hosted by Fred McKinnon here on one of the most beautiful places on earth: St. Simons Island, GA.

A sabbatical-style getaway for 3 days of rest, solitude, recreation, worship, and encouragement.  For those who want to rediscover that “still, small voice”.  For those who are weary from the trials of leading.  For those who are desperate for inspiration and vision.  Designed for those in ministry but available to anyone from Pastors, Worship Leaders, Executives, to Stay-At-Home Moms.

Interested?  Stay tuned …

I seem to have fallen off the band wagon (no pun intended) on faithfully posting our “Sunday Setlists” worship recaps here.  This is the first blog I’ve even posted in a couple of weeks.  All together now … “SLACKER”.   Thanks, I needed that.

So this past Sunday was a blast at SSCC.  I was able to teach the new Passion 2011 tune “All My Fountains” to our congregation and that’s exactly what we did … “teach” it.  I took about 4 minutes in the middle of the service to rehearse the melody, alto, and tenor parts with the congregation.  They owned it.  I was reminded how actually “teaching” a song … not just “performing it” could make a huge difference in corporate participation.

Russ Hutto joined me this week so he and his wife Lydia joined me in between services for a quick “worship confessional” video recap.  Here ya go – our worship recap, posted as a part of the weekly “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com.